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New Youngstown school will blend arts with science, technology, engineering and math
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Standing in one of the freshly painted classrooms for the new Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math school on Youngstown’s East Side are John Grahovac, left, school chief administrative officer, and Melvin Brown, regional vice president for Mosaica’s Ohio schools. The school will occupy the former Immaculate Conception School building on Oak Street.
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The Former Immaculate Conception School
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Going over curriculum with John Grahovac, are, from left, Cindy Bova, a first-grade teacher, and Kristine Italiano, head of curriculum. The school opens Aug. 22 and has 14 students enrolled thus far.
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
A new school opening this month will blend arts with science, technology, engineering and math for a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade curriculum.
Mosaica Education Inc. will open the STEAM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math — Academy on Aug. 22 on Oak Street in the former Immaculate Conception school building.
“Our sponsor is the Richland Academy of the Arts in Mansfield,” said John Grahovac, the school’s chief administrative officer.
Grahovac, a Youngstown native, served as both a teacher and principal in the city schools and as superintendent in both Struthers and Brookfield.
So far, 14 students have enrolled with another 20 possible enrollees, he said.
An enrollment picnic is planned for 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the school.
Grahovac is in the process of hiring teachers, aiming for a 15-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio. Those who have been hired are from the Mahoning Valley, many Youngstown State University graduates.
Melvin Brown, regional vice president for Mosaica’s Ohio schools, said the school will use Mosaica’s proprietary Paragon curriculum.
“It’s a hands-on approach,” Brown said, adding that STEM is the wave of the future.
Today’s students may well be in professions in the future that we haven’t thought of, Brown said.
Arts is infused, for example, by allowing students to portray characters they study in history.
The curriculum, though, is still based on the Common Core Standards followed by Ohio schools.
Brown said the new school isn’t trying to compete with the Youngstown district’s new Chaney, which opens this year with a STEM and visual and performing arts emphasis for sixth- through 12-graders.
Mosaica will open another STEAM school this fall on Elm Road in Warren.
Mosaica is painting the classrooms and installing new carpeting to prepare for the start of the school year.